Interactive gambling applications, including interactive gambling applications for use with interactive television (ITV), are known in the art. One such system is described in published PCT Patent Application WO 99/39312, assigned to NDS Ltd.
Some aspects of technologies and related art that may be useful in understanding the present invention are described in the following publications:                U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,898 to Belamant et al, which describes a system for controlling a gaming operation that includes a secure processing and memory apparatus in the form of a smart card, together with non-secure input and display means connectable to the smart card;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,086 to Alcorn et al, which describes an electronic casino gaming system that includes an unalterable ROM for storing a casino game authentication program, including a message digest algorithm program, a decryption program and a decryption key;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,398 to Schneier et al, which describes an off-line remote lottery system which enables players to purchase instant-type lottery game outcomes from a randomized prize data stream in a central computer, and view the outcomes on remotely disposed gaming computers which do not require an on-line connection during play;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,382 to Schneier et al, which describes a computer device and method for encoding a message corresponding to an outcome of a computer game, and a computer device and method for decoding the message to detect a fraudulent outcome;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,312 to McCarthy, which describes a wagering system for random drawing lotteries that has a central data processor managing acceptance of player entries and payout authorization;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,851,149 to Xidos et al, which describes a distributed gaming system that provides a user with remote location gaming, for example from within a hotel room;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,156 to Katz, which describes a telephonic-interface lottery system D that interfaces with a multiplicity of individual terminals T1-Tn of a telephone network facility C to enable lottery players to call and play for at least one additional chance to possibly win by dialing a pay-to-dial telephone number indicated on a “scratch-off” or online game lottery ticket for use in the system;        U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,674,128, 5,800,269, 6,089,982 and 6,280,328 to Holch et al, which describe a coinless video game system that includes a plurality of electronic video game terminals, a game server corresponding to each player terminal, and a central control network for administering and controlling games and player accounts;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,336 to Handelman et al, which describes a gaming guide method including providing first gaming guide information from a television network and second gaming guide information from a computer based communication network, and displaying simultaneously at least a portion of the first gaming guide information and at least a portion of the second gaming guide information;        U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,071,190 and 6,364,769 to Weiss et al, which describe a gaming device security system which includes two processing areas linked together and communicating critical gaming functions via a security protocol wherein each transmitted gaming function includes a specific encrypted signature to be decoded and validated before being processed by either processing area;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,640 to Walker et al, which describes an off-line remote lottery system which enables players to purchase instant-type lottery game outcomes from a randomized prize datastream in a central computer and view the outcomes on remotely disposed gaming computers which do not require an on-line connection to the central computer during play;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,549 to Walker et al, which describes a method and a system for a distributed electronic tournament system in which many remotely located players participate in a tournament through input/output devices connected to a central controller which manages the tournament;        U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,473 to Bergeron et al, which describes an on-line wavering system with programmable game entry cards including cards having on-card data storage for value tokens and data uniquely related to the player and including cards with on-card data storage for operator security data;        U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,666 to Bergeron et al, which describes an on-line wagering system with programmable game entry cards including cards having on-card data storage for value tokens and data uniquely related to the player;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,144 to Fitzpatrick et al, which describes a hand-held lottery number generating device;        U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,539,450 and 5,592,212 to Handelman et al, which describe a pay television gaming system including a pay television network having a multiplicity of subscriber units each including a television, receiving apparatus for receiving gaming inputs from the multiplicity of subscriber units, transmitting apparatus for transmitting to the multiplicity of subscriber units information relating to gaming results and accounting apparatus for settling gaming debts and winnings via the pay television network;        Published U.S. Patent Application 2001/0046894 of Lemay et al, which describes a key for a gaming machine for authorizing various functions via a control system of the gaming machine;        Published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0010013 of Walker et al, which describes systems and methods for facilitating games of skill for prizes played via a communication network;        Published U.S. Patent Application 2002/0032057 of Ebihara, which describes a game-program distribution system that includes a broadcasting station for transmitting a signal containing first data representative of a television program and second data representative of a game program related to the television program;        Published U.S. Patent Application 2001/0041612 of Garahi, which describes systems and methods for providing a consistent wagering interface to a variety of platforms; and        Handbook of Applied Cryptography, by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. van Oorschot and Scott A. Vanstone, CRC Press LLC, 1997, Chapter 5.        
The disclosures of all references mentioned above and throughout the present specification are hereby incorporated herein by reference.